Bruce Lindahl: 5 Things To Know About Likely Serial Killer

LISLE, IL — The advent of genealogy websites has been a boon for family history buffs looking to track down their roots — and in recent years, it's also helped police solve cold cases. On Monday, investigators in DuPage County announced it helped solve the 44-year-old murder of a high school student.

Pamela Maurer of Woodridge was 16 years old when she vanished while walking from a friend's house to buy a soda. Her body was later found on the side of a road in Lisle. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

The case was reopened in 1993. In 2001, evidence from Maurer's body allowed investigators to develop a DNA profile of her killer, but still the case remained unsolved — until now.

Authorities on Monday announced they've confirmed a DNA match to Maurer's killer, identified as Bruce Lindahl, who died in 1981. Authorities believe Lindahl likely had more victims, including a Copley Hospital employee who vanished just before testifying against him in a rape and kidnapping case and was later found slain.

"I suspect him to be a serial killer," Lisle Police Department Detective Chris Loudon said Monday.

Here are five things to know about Lindahl.

1. Lindahl is the first Illinois killer to be unmasked with the help of investigative genealogy.

In 2018, California's Golden State Killer case made fresh headlines when DNA from a genealogy website provided a familial match to the elusive suspect, leading to the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in a string of killings that terrorized California between 1974 and 1986.

Since then, investigative genealogy and home DNA kits have helped solve multiple crimes across the country, including cold cases in Florida, California, Wisconsin and other states.

On Monday, investigators said Lindahl's body was exhumed in November to confirm the DNA match.

2. Pamela Maurer's family learned that her killer had been found before the news was released to the media.

Investigators said the teen's family moved to Texas in the years following her death, and authorities traveled to tell them her killer had been identified after 44 years — and could no longer hurt anyone else.

3. Authorities believe Lindahl was behind other killings and was a likely serial killer.

"We have evidence that there may be other young women who were victimized by Bruce Lindahl between 1974 and his death in 1981," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said.

Those women include Debra Colliander, a Wisconsin native who worked for Copley Hospital and had accused Lindahl of rape and kidnapping. Lindahl was charged with accosting Colliander at Aurora's Northgate Shopping Center in June 1980 and forcing her into his apartment, according to a 1981 Chicago Tribune article.

She was set to testify against him when she vanished after leaving her job Oct. 7, 1980. Her body was found in a shallow grave in Oswego Township in 1982, after Lindahl was already dead.

A friend of Lindahl's later told investigators that Lindahl had offered him $2,000, a handgun, whiskey and pills to get rid of Colliander, Berlin said Monday. The friend did not report Lindahl's offer to authorities before Colliander's death.

4. Lindahl is also suspected in the 1979 disappearance of a Downers Grove North student.

Berlin said he believes Lindahl may also be behind the disappearance of Deborah McCall, a 16-year-old who was last seen Nov. 5, 1979. She left school that day and was never heard from again.

In addition to McCall's disappearance, police are investigating photographs of young women that were found inside Lindahl's home after his death, Berlin said Monday.

5. Lindahl died while committing yet another killing.

Lindahl was 28 when authorities found him dead in a Naperville apartment on April 4, 1981. His body was lying on top of another body — that of 18-year-old Charles Huber Jr.

Authorities believe Lindahl accidentally stabbed himself in the leg, severing his femoral artery, while stabbing Huber to death with a 6-inch kitchen knife. Investigators initially believed the deaths were a double homicide, Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall, who was then a patrol officer, told the Daily Herald.

"We determined through the autopsy that Lindahl had, in his rage of stabbing Mr. Huber, accidentally severed his own femoral artery and had bled to death, laying basically right on top of Mr. Huber," Marshall said.

Huber and Lindahl had been at a Naperville bowling alley together the night of their deaths, according to a 1981 Chicago Tribune story.